Changing China

Snapshot Beijing, 2: Matthias Steiner

Continuing our look at the golden moments from the Games, Sophie Hardach tells us what it was like watching the heart-wrenching story of weightlifter Matthias Steiner unfold.

Sophie writes:

After covering 14 Olympic weightlifting competitions, I sat down for the super-heavyweight contest knowing that it would be the most spectacular of them all. In the previous contests, I had seen hulking strongmen in tears, had watched lifters crash to the floor under the barbell, had heard caveman howls and primal screams.

Now all that macho breast-beating would reach a climax, with 150kg-contenders trying to snatch more than 200kg. What I did not expect to see in that testosterone-filled competition hall was a moment of heart-breaking tenderness.

I had heard the story of 25-year-old German lifter Matthias Steiner, whose wife, Susann, died after a car crash last year, and my heart went out to him as I watched him fail not just one but two attempts.

I had read that he carried a photo of Susann with him at every competition, and had promised her in hospital that he would make their joint Olympic dream come true. But after the snatch and another failed attempt in the clean and jerk, it looked as if he would not even win a medal.

I wrote up a short story just in case, thinking that his moving story might interest my editors even if he ended up fourth or fifth. Then I gave the editing desk a heads-up on the likely ranking: Russian Evgeny Chigishev gold, Latvian Viktors Scerbatihs silver … and maybe, just maybe, bronze for my own country, Germany.

Suddenly, Steiner raised his weight by 10kg. Weightlifters usually move up in steps of 2kg, sometimes 4kg or 6kg. After two failed attempts, this looked like a desperate lunge for a medal by a man who was clearly unable to lift the targeted weight. I was sure he would fail, and yet, as he lifted the barbell, I found myself forgetting my journalistic impartiality, thinking only: come on, you can do it, pleeease…

He did it. Groaning and yelling, he lifted 258kg, his personal best. “Matthias Steiner gold, Chigishev silver, Scerbatihs bronze,” I shouted into my phone. I then hugged the bewildered Reuters colleague next to me before furiously typing up the story.

I only looked up again when the German anthem played. Steiner was standing on the podium, a bear of a man choking back the tears, clutching a bouquet and his medal. Then someone handed him another object.

He held it up and kissed it, a look of incredible pain mixed with happiness on his face. I gasped when I recognised what it was — a photo of a young, pretty blonde with a carefree smile. Susann.

Read Snapshot Beijing, 1: Matt Emmons, by Erik Kirschbaum here.

Germans grieve with lovelorn lifter

When super-heavyweight lifter Matthias Steiner won his first Olympic gold medal, he kissed a photo of the woman he had buried in her wedding dress last year.

The hulking German’s tale of love and loss has moved millions of viewers around the world, and the image of Steiner holding up the photo of Susann, who died after a car crash, was splashed across German websites on Wednesday.

“The first thing I’ll do when I get home is visit her grave,” German media quoted the 25-year-old Steiner as saying. “I’m never able to stay around her grave for long because it hurts so much. Susann was and is my great love.”

Their love story started with a remote control. Susann was flicking through TV channels and happened upon a weightlifting contest. She saw Steiner, a grizzly bear of a man, and was  instantly smitten.

She e-mailed him, he agreed to meet her, and she took the train to Austria where he was living at the time. They fell in love at first sight.

Soon, Steiner applied for German citizenship and the two started saving up so Susann could accompany him to Beijing. But a car crash just before Susann’s 23rd birthday shattered those plans. She was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery, but never regained consciousness. Steiner pledged at her bedside that he would make their Olympic dream come true.

“His gold has touched our hearts,” sighed tabloid Bild on its website. Other media called him the “sad colossus” after Steiner, whose German citizenship only came through at the beginning of this year, claimed the unofficial title of strongest man in the world.

Beijing Games: picture of the day

Russell Boyce writes: The men’s +105kg weightlifting produced grunts and groans, strains and shouts as men lifted weights up to 258kg.

It also produced an amazing series of portraits as these heavyweight giants battled it out for the gold medal, ferocious and hard faced giants every one of them, or at least so it seemed.

Amazing just how wrong first impressions can be as winner, Germany’s Matthias Steiner, wept on the podium clutching his gold medal and a photograph of his late wife Susann.

PHOTO (TOP): (Top row L-R) Viktors Scerbatihs of Latvia, Evgeny Chigishev of Russia, Grzegorz Leszcz of Poland, Maama Lolohea of Toga, (bottom row L-R) Artem Udachyn of Ukraine, Matthias Steiner of Germany, Jeon Sangguen of South Korea and Ihor Shymechko of Ukraine compete in the men’s +105kg weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 19, 2008 in this combination picture. REUTERS/Yves Herman

PHOTO: (BOTTOM): Matthias Steiner of Germany holds a photo of his late wife Susann as he poses with his gold medal in the men’s +105kg Group A weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 19, 2008. REUTERS/Alvin Chan

Look away if you’re squeamish

If you’re in any way squeamish, look away before you’ve spotted what is wrong!

Russell Boyce writes: Officials gather round a young man who has a distressed look in his face. Parental looking figures try to help. What is the matter, the mind asks? The eye is drawn from the distressed face to the hand that is being held … no, that looks OK. Then the eye is led along to the elbow. Oh no … elbows shouldn’t bend that way!

PHOTO: Officials attend to Janos Baranyai of Hungary after he injured himself during the men’s 77kg Group B snatch weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 13, 2008. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Russell Boyce is Reuters chief photographer, Asia. For a selection of other great Reuters pix from the Games click here. For yesterday’s picture of the day click here.

Beijing Games: picture of the day

Rickey Rogers writes: Alessandro Bianchi created this wonderful image as he searched for a new angle from which to photograph the second day of the fencing competition.

Sports like fencing, boxing and judo are very repetitive for a photographer, and it takes a curious eye to find new angles. The picture is aesthetically pleasing with enough movement to give the reader an idea of what the sport is about, and its multi-layered composition invokes mystery.

The caption reads: Sturia Torkildsen of Norway (back) competes against Matteo Tagliariol of Italy (not pictured) during their epee bout in the men’s individual fencing competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 10, 2008. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Rickey Rogers is Reuters News Pictures Editor, Latin America. For a selection of other great Reuters pix from the Games click here. For the previous day’s chosen picture click here.

Watching China bring home its first Olympic gold

Weightlifting is not the most glamorous Olympic sport. Forget about glitzy endorsement deals, tabloid tell-alls and magazine shoots. This is a world where taciturn men from Belarus and compact women from China win their gold medals in relative obscurity.

But for 67 minutes on Saturday morning, weightlifting had its place in the limelight.

Millions of Chinese had hoped shooter Du Li would win the first gold on offer at the Olympics for her homeland. Du caved in under pressure and failed, leaving the hopes of an entire nation resting on weightlifter Chen Xiexia’s broad shoulders.

Weightlifting competitions progress from the weakest lifters to the strongest, and so we were watching several short women stumble, fall over or collapse under the weight of the barbells when suddenly the news broke that Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic had won the air rifle gold.

The Reuters news flash of Emmons’ victory and therefore, Du’s defeat, appeared at 11:54, Beijing time. All of a sudden, weightlifting seemed a lot more important than before.

At the shooting range, Chinese fans kept their voices down to avoid distracting Du. In the weightlifting hall, they had apparently decided there was no such thing as too much pressure.

The cheers and shouts built up gradually: a warm welcome for Thailand’s Laosirikul Pensiri, enthusiastic clapping for South Korean Im Jyounghwa, huge cheers and shouts of “Go! Go!” for Taiwan’s Chen Wei-Ling. The Chinese audience was generously rooting for everyone in the Asian neighbourhood, even the island they see as a renegade province.

A smoke-free Games? Not for all the athletes

Early to rise, early to bed, and lots of exercise in between: athletes are supposed to be models of clean living, right? But some Olympians have a more healthy lifestyle than others.

For Italian weightlifter Giorgio de Luca, for example, doping is out of the question but coffee, cigarettes, and the occasional drink are all fine.

“We’re aiming for a clean sport,” the 24-year-old from Palermo said, puffing a cigarette outside the Olympic gym in Beijing, watched by his coach.

Several coaches and weightlifters huddled around the ashtrays in front of the gym on Tuesday — a picture that is unlikely to please their Olympic hosts. Beijing has promised to do its utmost to ensure clean air for the Games, and that means smog-free and smoke-free.

Smoking is banned at Olympic venues, and a 100,000-strong puff police is supposed to enforce the rule.

Not that anyone told the smokers at the gym to stub it out. The volunteers at the venue were happily handing out water, taking pictures and chatting with the smokers. Apparently, “smoking ban” is just as ambiguous a phrase as “clean living”.

PHOTO: A man smokes a cigarette as he walks past a billboard advertising the Olympics in central Beijing July 14, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray

Zen, Tao and the art of accessing an Olympic venue

Asian negotiation techniques have brought Westerners to their knees ever since Taoist sage Laozi said that soft and fluid water wears away the hardest rock. The deadliest weapon in the boardrooms of companies from Tokyo to Beijing: a long, inscrutable silence.

So who wins in a stand-off between Chinese Olympic volunteers (“nothing is as soft and yielding as water, and yet it conquers that which is hard and unyielding” – Laozi) and Japanese reporters (“my heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes” – Zen monk Soyen Shaku)?

The burning issue at hand: media access to the Olympic weightlifting training centre.

Japanese reporters have been crowding around the gym for days, trying to get inside and shoot pictures of weightlifter Hiromi Miyake, one of Japan’s main medal hopes. Chinese volunteers, on the other hand, have been trying to keep them out.

On Saturday, about a dozen journalists infiltrated the gym. Photographers skulked around the mats and weights, looking for the best angle, while text reporters huddled in a corner next to the area where Miyake was training, watched by her coach and father.

A Chinese volunteer approached the group and announced that according to Olympic rules, journalists were not allowed to enter the gym.

The Japanese reporters nodded, smiled, and stayed put.

How to diet like a weightlifter — eat lots and don’t exercise

Like many 19-year-olds, German Julia Rohde needs to watch her weight – but her aim is to squeeze into the perfect competition category rather than the perfect dress.

With her massive shoulders and bulging biceps and thighs, the petite blonde usually weighs in at 55kg, a tad too heavy for the 53kg category she’ll be competing in on Sunday. Not that she’ll be going hungry.

In a sport where every pound counts because it means extra lifting power, her crash diet is still generous by most standards: bread, cold meat, muesli and yoghurt for breakfast; meat, salad and fruit for lunch; meat for dinner; and chocolate if she feels the pounds are dropping off too quickly.

And unlike most dieters, she won’t be trying to walk off the excess kilos between training sessions. Under her strict pre-competition regime, any unscheduled exercise that could strain her legs is, well, verboten. Which means she’ll only be allowed to move between her room, the training centre and the Olympic canteen.

See here for the full story.